42 Great Quotes About Advertising

42 Great Quotes About Advertising

Advertising is an integral part of consumer society. 

It stimulates demand for goods and services and has contributed to the growth of the global economy and increased living standards.

Like anything, it has its downsides, but it's not clear that the world would be better without it.  

Anyway. Enough of a preamble. Let’s get on with it. 

We’ve picked forty-two of the most insightful quotes on the topic, hoping they will help you better understand this art form.  

Some of them might even draw a smile. 

1. “People hate advertising until they lose their cat.”

- David Droga, founder of Droga5 advertising agency

2. “Nothing except the mint can make money without advertising.”

- Thomas Babington Macaulay, British historian, poet, and politician

3. “People screen out a lot of commercials because they open with something dull...When you advertise fire-extinguishers, open with the fire".

- David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy advertising agency

4. “In good times people want to advertise; in bad times they have to.”

- Bruce Barton, American author, advertising executive, and politician

5. “I honestly believe that advertising is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.”

- Jerry Della Femina, American advertising executive and restaurateur

6. “An ad is finished only when you no longer can find a single element to remove.”

– Robert Fleege, Freelance advertising agency art director

7. “Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does.”

– Steuart Henderson Britt, Professor of Marketing

8. “I am one who believes that one of the greatest dangers of advertising is not that of misleading people, but that of boring them to death.”

– Leo Burnett, American advertising executive and the founder of Leo Burnett

9. “Advertising stumbled upon it's greatest insight that everybody is really two people; the person you are and the person you want to be. All marketing is squarely aimed at person number two.”

- Terry O’Reilly, Host: Under The Influence - a podcast about the intersection of advertising & pop culture

10. “Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.”

– Stephen Leacock, Canadian humourist, educator and lecturer

11. “An ad should be an appetizer, not a buffet.”

- Lee Clow, Chairman and global director of TBWA\Worldwide

12. “Advertising is totally unnecessary. Unless you hope to make money.”

- Jef I. Richards, Chair of the Department of Advertising & PR at Michigan State University

13. “Too many ads that try not to go over the reader's head end up beneath his notice.

- Leo Burnett, American advertising executive and the founder of Leo Burnett

14. “Advertising may be described as the science of arresting human intelligence long enough to get money from it.”

- Stephen Leacock, Canadian humourist, educator and lecturer

15. “Advertising is the greatest art form of the twentieth century.”

- Marshall McLuhan, Canadian philosopher

16. “Making work as creative as possible is imperative to making work that is effective”.

- James Hurman, Advertising effectiveness expert from New Zealand

17. “I’ve never found a client’s business problem that could be solved solely through advertising.”

- Lee Clow, Chairman and global director of TBWA\Worldwide

18. “If you're trying to persuade people to do something or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think."

- David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy advertising agency

19. “Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.”

- Bill Bernbach, American advertising creative director and co-founder of the ad agency DDB

20. “Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.”

- Leo Burnett, American advertising executive and the founder of Leo Burnett

21. “Good advertising is written from one person to another. When it is aimed at millions it rarely moves anyone.”

– Fairfax M. Cone, American businessman and advertising executive

22. “Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes, it’s an ad.”

– Howard Gossage, American advertising innovator during the "Mad Men" era

23. “Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.”

– Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company

24. “A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.”

- David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy advertising agency

25. “A good ad should be like a good sermon: It must not only comfort the afflicted, it also must afflict the comfortable.”

– Bernice Fitz-Gibbon, American advertising executive

26. “There is a great deal of advertising that is much better than the product. When that happens, all that the good advertising will do is put you out of business faster.”

- Jerry Della Femina, American advertising executive and restaurateur

27. “The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.”

- Bill Bernbach, American advertising creative director and co-founder of the ad agency DDB

28. “Advertising is legalized lying.”

– H. G. Wells, English writer

29. “Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”

- Mark Twain, American writer

30. “In advertising, not to be different is virtually suicidal”

- Bill Bernbach, American advertising creative director and co-founder of the ad agency DDB

31. “Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.

- Leo Burnett, American advertising executive and the founder of Leo Burnett

32. “Most car advertising assumes that people have IQs that are missing a digit”.

- Sergio Marchionne, former CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

33. “No one wakes up excited to see more advertising, no one goes to sleep thinking about the ads they'll see tomorrow”.

- Jan Koum, Co-founder of WhatsApp

34. “Advertising is the 'wonder' in Wonder Bread”.

- Jef I. Richards, Chair of the Department of Advertising & PR at Michigan State University

35. “Much of the messy advertising you see on television today is the product of committees. Committees can criticize advertisements, but they should never be allowed to create them”.

- David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy advertising agency

36. “Advertising - a judicious mixture of flattery and threats”.

- Herman Northrop Frye, Canadian literary critic

37. ”Creative without strategy is called 'art. ' Creative with strategy is called 'advertising.”

- Jef I. Richards, Chair of the Department of Advertising & PR at Michigan State University

38. “The best advertising is done by satisfied customers."

- Philip Kotler, American marketing author

39. “You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements”.

- George Norman Douglas, British writer

40. “Advertising isn't a science. It's persuasion. And persuasion is an art.”

- Bill Bernbach, American advertising creative director and co-founder of the ad agency DDB

41. “Doing business without advertising is like being a beautiful girl and thinking you’re going to meet Mr. Right because you’re beautiful. You have to get out there and let people know you exist.”

- Kevin Clark

42. “Advertising tries to be a pyromaniac, igniting conflagrations of desires for instant gratification.”

- George Will, American libertarian conservative writer and political commentator


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